Snow holidays were back and I decided to do it in a slightly different way than usual and do a combined ski and festival trip. Tomorrowland Winter is in the French Alps and it was held at Alpe d’Huez. We spent 4 nights, so we were able to enjoy 3 days of skiing and 4 days of the festival.

Accommodation was fully booked out in Alpe d’Huez and we could only get a 4 day festival pass, so we booked Hotel Oberland which is in Bourg-d’Oisans. Usually this wouldn’t be a problem getting to the mountains as Tomorrowland Winter put on transfers from nearby towns. However, they didn’t and this caused a bit of stress. Luckily we were able to make it work, especially thanks to the hospitality of the hotel owner, Vincent. They are more popular in summer due to the prominent cycling in the area (Tour de France) but I’d highly recommend staying here as the rooms are nice and rustic, with included delicious breakfast and real hospitable service.

Skiing

I did three half day morning lessons with ESF which were great as the instructor was fun and I felt I improved because he took us on easier black runs which I wouldn’t have done if I was by myself. I went on my own for a bit after the lesson but by the afternoon, the snow was awful and too slushy to ski on.

Restaurants

These are the restaurants we went to in Bourg-d’Oisans and Alpe d’Huez
– Restaurant Le France (Bourg-d’Oisans) – super local place where they only really do tartiflette.
– Le 2000 (Alpe d’Huez) – decent enough for a quick pizza / bite and beer.
– La Fondue (Alpe d’Huez) – we got a last minute reservation and had the fondue which was delicious
– Au Trappeur (Alpe d-Huez) – amazing place to have a burger with chips and some beer for around €20.

– Restaurant Le Cristal (Bourg-d’Oisans) – we had a steak which was good and shared a chocolate fondant for dessert.

– Restaurant Genepi (Alpe d’Huez) – they did entree and plat for €35 and I got the salmon cappacio and the scallops with sweet potato which were both tasty. We also shared a bottle of Chablis and they gave a complimentary shot of genepi at the end.

– Underground Bar (Alpe d’Huez) – fun British bar
– Restaurant la Cremaillere (Alpe d’Huez) – we couldn’t go here as we didn’t have a reservation but it was highly recommended

Festival

There were three stages on the mountain and the main stage in Alpe d’Huez. We mainly went to Crystal Garden and the main stage due to the number of DJs we liked there. Some of the highlights include:
– Tuesday – seeing the last bit of Steve Aoki and Armin Van Buuren at Crystal Palace stage on the mountain
– Wednesday – seeing Ofenbach, Afrojack and Armin Van Buuren at the mainstage at night
– Thursday – hanging out at Crystal Palace stage from around 2pm with lots of day drinking and seeing Tom & Collins, Kapuchon, Ofenbach and Martin Solveig
– Friday – seeing the last bit of Martin Solveig, Kolsch, Lost Frequencies (probably my favourite) and lastly Dimitri Las Vegas and Like Mike who were also amazing.

It’s an experience in itself and it was intense especially as I was getting up every morning at 8am to ski and staying out late to go to the festival and party, so I felt very sleep deprived in general!

We had so much fun meeting great people from around the world and see world class DJs. I’d highly recommend you do this at least once in your life!